Today the Linux Foundation announced the "Core Infrastructure Initiative" to fund and support Free Software projects that are critical to the security of Internet users. The first project to receive funding will be OpenSSL, which is used for secure data transportation by millions of websites. FSFE welcomes this initiative.

"Free Software is the foundation on which today's technology companies are built," says Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe. "It is good to see these companies step up and contribute to improving the software on which they, and their users, depend for their security."

The crisis related to the recent "Heartbleed" bug in the OpenSSL program has made it clear that some widely used Free Software projects are not receiving support that was commensurate with their importance. The Core Infrastructure Initiative is a welcome step towards changing this.

"Technology companies are wise to treat these Free Software projects as important suppliers," says Gerloff. "This initiative highlights one of the great things about Free Software: It helps to align the particular interests of a limited number of actors with the public interest."

Besides OpenSSL, a number of other Free Software projects that are critical to the everyday security of Internet users and businesses would benefit from greater support. FSFE hopes that the Core Infrastructure Initiative will make a long-term contribution to improving the software that projects such as GnuPG provide to the public.